A Microsoft employee helps Virginia Sanchez, left, with a laptop question at the grand opening of the Microsoft Park Meadows store in June 2010. (John Prieto/The Denver Post)

UPDATE | Sept. 10, 2012 10:05 P.M.: The stores referenced in this blog post are described by Microsoft as “pop-up locations” that will only be open for this year’s upcoming holiday season. They will not be traditional brick-and-mortar stores.

The pop-up locations, though, will offer the same selections and deals as Microsoft’s traditional retail stores, according to a spokeswoman.

Microsoft said Monday that it will open a retail outlet in the Cherry Creek Shopping Center this fall as part of a national roll out of about 30 branded stores. The company disclosed plans to expand its retail strategy at the Worldwide Partner Conference in July, disclosing it would have 44 stores nationwide by the end of June 2013.

The new Cherry Creek store will “allow customers to have hands-on experience with and identify the best Microsoft products for their personal and gift-giving needs,” a spokeswoman said in an email.

Tamara Chuang covers personal technology and local tech news for The Denver Post. She previously spent 10 years doing the same thing for The Orange County Register before taking a hiatus to move here and become a SAHM to a precocious toddler.

Laura Keeney is a business reporter with The Denver Post, covering aerospace, aviation and biotech. Over the last two decades, she's covered everything from agribusiness to punk rock. Keeney holds an AACSB-accredited MBA from St. John Fisher College in Rochester, NY.